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  • 1.  Who all is doing appointment based adoptions and what are your pros/cons?

    Posted 10 days ago

    I am looking for more info from folks who are doing appointment based adoptions in their shelters. I know it was popular in 2020-2021 but am curious if shelters are still operating this way and what successes or pit falls they've found with this?

    Are you seeing a  difference in your adoptions stats?

    Have you seen a decrease in return rates?

    How did you go about discussing this idea with your Board of Directors or higher ups?

    What advice would you have for starting this change?

    What lessons have you learned? (Pros/cons)

    For context- we are a high volume intake shelter who takes in owner surrenders as well as transferring in stray animals from the municipal shelter next door. We saw about 8,000 intakes last year. We moved to appointment based owner surrender appointments several years ago and have found great success with that. However, our adoptions are not scheduled. I feel we could offer better customer service, find better placements, and improve staff mental health if we looked into appointment based adoptions but I also am not sure how feasible it would be in the long run. Also, I would need to look into the number side of things in order to get my superiors and our Board to entertain the  idea as I think they could see it as a decrease in adoptions numbers.

    So any info or feedback would be helpful!


    #AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
    #DataandTechnology

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    Sarah Reida
    Director of Programs and Services
    Kansas Humane Society
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  • 2.  RE: Who all is doing appointment based adoptions and what are your pros/cons?

    Posted 9 days ago

    We are a small rescue in Middle Georgia but we do adoptions by appt. We only schedule if they have an approved application so we don't waste anyone's time. We do take in owner surrenders or stray surrender (after the stray hold has been done by finder), but 90% of those are by appt as well and we don't take all of them. Its based on foster or space availability and how adoptable it is. If we already have several pits that are going to take time to adopt out, we need to keep some spaces for animals that will adopt quicker to help cover expenses of the ones that sit.

    By appt allows us to have a volunteer thats dedicated attention is to helping the person meet the animals they are interested in or suggesting others based on conversation. It also gives them a chance to focus on the adopter vibes. If they seem at all unsure or like they are just picking one to walk out with an animal, we might suggest they take a day to think it over to make sure its the right choice for them. We explain how hard it is on the animal (and the volunteers) when animals go home and come back.  This strategy has worked well for us.

    Now that we are foster based, everything is definitely by appt only.



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    Sarah
    Paws in Middle Georgia Animal Rescue
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Who all is doing appointment based adoptions and what are your pros/cons?

    Posted 8 days ago

    We a government based shelter. After coming back from the pandemic, we lost all of our kennel labor as they discontinued the inmate program.  At the same time, our in person volunteers decreased significantly coming out of the pandemic. We had to move all staff that we had left to care taking positions and our volunteers that handles no longer come in so we continue to be adoption basis for adoptions just logistically.  What we have found though is that the dogs became less reactive in kennels with less people walking through all the time.  Initially our adoptions decreased, but eventually picked back up and our return rate percentage was half of what it used to be. I like to think this is due to the increased conversations going on when making matches.  For us, it was a matter of staffing so the higher ups understood as they were not willing to give us as many paid staff as we need to cover care and being completely accessible during business hours for adoption. 



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    Bobbie Comer
    York County Animal Control
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Who all is doing appointment based adoptions and what are your pros/cons?

    Posted 7 days ago

    We are a medium-sized facility (900 adoptions per year) and we do appointment-only adoption meet and greets. The biggest "pro" has probably been seeing calmer in-kennel behavior for our dogs specifically. It also helps us guide the customers experience with pets who maybe don't present well in the kennel but can be absolute gems in an actual meet! Recently, it seems like we have had an uptick in "behavioral" dogs who need a little extra support  and this definitely has helped several of them find great placement in homes (especially anyone with barrier reactivity or who struggles when meeting new people - things that don't "show well" in kennel). 

    The biggest con is probably that we still regularly have folks who are unhappy they can't go on a self-guided tour right now. Many are understanding once we explain; some are not nice about it. To help mitigate this, we have done a few other things too:

    • We have photos and information about all available pets in our lobby.
    • We hired an additional adoption counselor (part-time) for our busiest days (Friday and Saturday) to create more appointment opportunities.
    • Several other staff are cross-trained to do meet and greets, so we can accommodate occasional walk-ins too.
    • We do not require an adoption application in advance to schedule a meet (just name and phone number).
    • When they are ready to adopt, we have a short 1 page front-and-back application based on the Adopters Welcome model. 

    Additional notes:

    1. The other local shelters within a 10 minute drive of us ALSO require appointments.
    2. Our cat appointments are 30 minutes and do include a supervised walk-through of the available cat kennels.
    3. Our dog appointments are 60 minutes to give them plenty of time to meet several dogs. They do not currently include any kind of kennel walkthrough, but we are reviewing the idea of supervised walk-throughs in an upcoming meeting, based on a recent study. 



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    Erin Dams
    Operations Director
    Roanoke Valley SPCA
    Roanoke VA
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Who all is doing appointment based adoptions and what are your pros/cons?

    Posted 7 days ago

    We are a smaller sized shelter, and we do our dog adoptions by appointment only and they have to have an approved adoption application as someone else said, so we do not waste anyone's time.  We do not allow people to take tours of "DogLand" any more as we were noticing that it was causing the dogs high levels of stress and some dogs were becoming kennel reactive.  We allow the potential adopters to choose the dog they would like to meet and set up the dog in a meet and greet yard (weather permitting, otherwise in our Real Life Room), and allow for low pressure introductions that way.  We ensure the potential adopter has treats on hand.  They can also meet several dogs in one day if they would like, but we do not allow same day adoptions for dogs.  We also have the main adults meet the dog one day, then children a different day, and other dogs in the home on yet another day.  It is a longer process, but it gives the dogs and the people time to stop, think, decompress and decide if it is is good fit.  We try to not schedule more than one meet and greet for a particular dog in a day, but we absolutely do not do them back-to-back. It all depends on the dog and how they respond to the interactions. 

    It is a lot, and we could possibly speed it up, but we also want to ensure we get the right fit, and we see less than 200 dogs in a year currently. 



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    Mindy Wulf
    Executive Director
    SPCA of Hancock County
    ME
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Who all is doing appointment based adoptions and what are your pros/cons?

    Posted 6 days ago

    We are a medium-sized facility (900 adoptions annually) and we do Appointment-based adoptions, with no public walk throughs in the kennels. I think the biggest pro is that we have seen our dogs specifically behaving more calmly overall with less people coming through all day. I feel like there's been an uptick in "behavioral cases" we're currently managing as well, so this has been really important to us. 

    The biggest down-side is that we do regularly have people who are unhappy about that change. To help mitigate those negative interactions:

    • We have photos and information about all available pets in our front lobby.
    • We do not require an adoption application before the appointment (we just collect name and phone number; if they already exist in our system, we can review their account beforehand - for example, if they are DNA, we still catch it)
    • We hired an additional adoption counselor to create more appointment slots AND many of our other staff are cross-trained to do adoption appointments.
    • We DO try to accommodate walk-ins when we can! 
    • When they are ready to adopt, we have a short one-page, front and back application based on the Adopters Welcome model. 

    Our cat appointments are 30 minutes and do include a supervised walk-through of the available cat kennels, along with meet and greets. with any cats they are interested in.

    Our dog appointments are an hour, so they have time to see several dogs if they want. We do not currently do a walk-through (supervised or otherwise) of the dog kennels (the visitor goes right to the meeting space), but we are actually going to revisit this option in an upcoming meeting based on a study we recently reviewed and may look at adding supervised walkthroughs in the dog rooms.



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    Erin Dams
    Operations Director
    Roanoke Valley SPCA
    Roanoke VA
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    Original Message


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